Marine's story truly American

[thedrifter]

Article ran : 04/30/2003
Marine's story truly American

Courage isn?t measured by a person?s physical size, or the way he walks, the way he talks or where he?s from.



Most who are truly courageous carry that capacity somewhere deep inside them, alongside their sense of morality, their heart and their spirit. One courageous man is Oj John B. Santamaria.



Santamaria is a man of slight stature but a big heart. He is a native of the Philippines and a U.S. Marine. On March 24, Santamaria and his unit ? 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment operating as a part of Task Force Tarawa ? came under fire near the Euphrates River in Iraq. The Marine lance corporal was wounded by enemy shrapnel while trying to open an ammunition can containing 40 mm grenades in combat conditions.



Santamaria took a piece of shrapnel in the back of his arm. The shrapnel exited through the front of his shoulder, breaking his humerus bone in the process and effectively putting the young Marine out of the war.



Santamaria didn?t like leaving his buddies to fight without him and wanted to go back to his unit to finish what he?d started. He told a reporter from The Daily News that he?d suffered nightmares about his fellow Marines still in the thick of combat ? without him.



Sent back to the United States to recover from his wounds, he eventually ended up at the Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital after passing through Ramstein Air Base in Germany and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. It was at Bethesda that Santamaria learned about another Marine attaining U.S. citizenship and decided to seek his own.



While recovering from his injuries at Bethesda, Santamaria realized his dream of becoming a U.S. citizen in a ceremony attended by the president of the United States. In doing so, Santamaria achieved something he says his grandfather ? a guerrilla who fought against the Japanese during World War II ? would have been proud to claim. Santamaria is justifiably thrilled with his newly acquired citizenship; his fellow Americans should be just as excited.



Santamaria?s story is at its heart a story of what makes America one of the strongest nations in the history of man. Each new citizen ? regardless of background, cultural heritage, or ethnic and racial groupings ? adds to the rich and varied tapestry that is America.



When Santamaria made his way to these shores, he was seeking a better life ? a life that would allow him to go as far as his dreams and ambition would take him.



He chose to become a U.S. Marine, because ? as he has said ? he wanted to be the best.



The Marines have in Santamaria a man whose devotion to duty and courage is already an inspiration to his fellow citizens.



It?s a pleasure to be able to welcome this newly minted American home from the war in Iraq ? a war in which he demonstrated by his actions those principles of courage and sacrifice that have made this country the ?land of the free and home of the brave.?



Sempers,

Roger